Hypercholesterolemia, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and obesity are well-recognized risk factors in the onset of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. The diseases are characterized by high levels of cholesterol and lipids in the blood. The blood cholesterol pool is generally dependent on dietary uptake of cholesterol from the intestine, and from the biosynthesis of cholesterol throughout the body, especially the liver. The majority of cholesterol in plasma is carried on apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins, such as low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL). The risk of coronary artery disease in man increases when LDL and VLDL levels increase. Conversely, high levels of cholesterol carried in high-density lipoproteins (HDL) is protective against coronary artery disease (Am. J. Med., 1977;62:707-714).
The statins represent perhaps the most important class of lipid-lowering drugs. These compounds inhibit HMG-CoA reductase which is implicated in the rate-limiting step in cellular cholesterol biosynthesis. Representative statins include atorvastatin, lovastatin, pravastatin, and simvastatin. The effectiveness of these compounds depends on LDL receptor regulation. Other important antilipidemia drugs include fibrates such as gemfibril and clofibrate, bile acid sequestrants such as cholestyramine and colestipol, probucol, and nicotinic acid analogs.
To date, a number of oral antidiabetic agents have been developed. The most commonly used hypoglygemic drugs are the sulfonylureas. Sulfonylureas are generally used to stimulate insulin. The biguanide metformin is generally used to improve insulin sensitivity and to decrease hepatic glucose output. Acarbose is used to limit postprandial hyperglycemia. Thiazolidine 2,4 diones are used to enhance insulin action without increasing insulin secretion.
Obesity is a chronic disease that is highly prevalent in modem society and is associated not only with a social stigma, but also with decreased life span and numerous medical problems, including diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, thromboembolic disease, and coronary heart disease. Rissanen et al, British Medical Journal, 301:835-837 (1990). Treatment of obesity remains a problem and it is unclear whether dieting results in decreased long-term risk of early death. A further important obesity intervention is physical activity. Exercise, however, in general, has been found to be only moderately successful in promoting weight loss. A program combining both dieting and exercise as well as behaviour modification is widely viewed as the optimal approach to weight loss. Studies have demonstrated that the combination of both food restriction and exercise promote a substantial loss of fat while maitaining lean tissue.
Peroxisome Proliferator Activation Receptors (PPAR) are implicated in a number of biological processes and disease states including hypercholesterolemia, dyslipidemia, and diabetes. PPARs are members of the nuclear receptor superfamily of transcription factors that includes steroid, thyroid, and vitamin D receptors. They play a role in controlling expression of proteins that regulate lipid metabolism. Furthermore, the PPARs are activated by fatty acids and fatty acid metabolites. There are three PPAR subtypes PPAR α, PPAR β (also referred to as PPAR δ), and PPAR γ. Each receptor shows a different pattern of tissue expression, and differences in activation by structurally diverse compounds. PPAR γ, for instance, is expressed most abundantly in adipose tissue and at lower levels in skeletal muscle, heart, liver, intestine, kidney, vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells as well as macrophages. PPAR receptors are associated with regulation of insulin sensitivity and blood glucose levels, macrophage differentiation, inflammatory response, and cell differentiation. Accordingly, PPARs have been associated with obesity, diabetes, carcinogenesis, hyperplasia, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, and hypercholesterolemia.
In addition, PPARα agonists lower plasma triglycerides and LDL cholesterol and are therefore useful in treating hypertriglyceridemia, dyslipidemia and obesity. PPAR γ is associated with the development of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), hypertension, coronary artery disease, dyslipidemia and certain malignancies. Finally, activation of PPAR β has been demonstrated to increase HDL levels. (Leibowitz, WO97/28149, August 1997.) More recently, a PPAR β selective agonist was reported to have shown a dose-related increase in serum HDL-C and decrease in LDL-C and VLDL-TG in insulin-resistant middle aged rhesus monkeys. (W. R. Oliver et al., PNAS, v. 98, pp. 5306-5311, 2001)
Antilipidemic, antidiabetic and anti-obesity agents are still considered to have non-uniform effectiveness. The effectivieness of antidiabetic and antilipidemic therapies is limited, in part because of poor patient compliance due to unacceptable side effects. These side effects include diarrhea and gastrointestinal discomfort, and in the case of antidiabetics, edema, hypoglycemia and hepatoxicity. Furthermore, each type of drug does not work equally well in all patients.
For the reasons set forth above, there is a need for novel antilipidemic, antidiabetic, and anti-obesity agents that can be used alone or in combination. Furthermore, activation of multiple PPARs, for instance, PPARβ alone or in combination with the simultaneous activation of PPAR α and/or PPAR γ, may be desirable in formulating a treatment for dyslipidemia in which HDL is increased and LDL lowered.